


Kent Parson's Role as Antagonist and Character Foil

by garden of succulents (staranise)



Series: Lis's Check Please! Meta [3]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: BPD Kent Parson, Canon Analysis, Close Read, Meta, Other, parsepositive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-10-31 10:56:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10897908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/staranise/pseuds/garden%20of%20succulents
Summary: Meta: When Ngozi says that Kent Parson is the series' antagonist, does she mean "evil villain" or "person who exemplifies traits our heroes are struggling against"?  (A Parse-positive analysis)





	Kent Parson's Role as Antagonist and Character Foil

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to Tumblr [here](http://des-zimbits.tumblr.com/post/145196780926/i-have-a-major-deadline-tomorrow-that-is-essential); crossposted to the AO3 for posterity and ease of access.

I have a major deadline tomorrow that is essential for completion of my Master’s degree so of COURSE I’m procrastinating by writing The Bigass Meta I’ve Been Promising for Weeks About Kent’s Narrative Role As Antagonist.  (It’s not that bigass, it’s less than a thousand words) TW for toxic relationships, toxic masculinity, substance abuse, addiction, and… IDK what else, let me know and I’ll go back and tag.

Kent is Jack’s thematic foil.  Kent is everything Jack thought he should be.  Kent doesn’t acknowledge his mental illness and it doesn’t seem to interfere with his career; he’s cool, everybody loves him, he’s WILDLY successful.  He looks down on Samwell’s players (”[How’d this guy get recruited?](http://67.media.tumblr.com/b17295634962ee1512a02e33262058e8/tumblr_mozn0oZJIb1r1a44jo3_1280.jpg)”) and mostly just thinks they need to shape the fuck up (”[Jack chewed me out in front of everyone, again](http://67.media.tumblr.com/6f16d2de7c9414ef28f36de5b8e4b41c/tumblr_mpzso9Xvky1r1a44jo3_1280.jpg)”/[Jack comes in two settings: pre-season bitchy, and regular bitchy](http://67.media.tumblr.com/96cc847c7fa082d0999edae9d1b02c7e/tumblr_mpzso9Xvky1r1a44jo4_r1_1280.jpg)).  He’s closeted as hell.  ([”Stay away from my team.” “Why? Afraid I’ll tell them something?”](http://67.media.tumblr.com/7ab0f3bbdc4a51158b3ff9b887a35d4b/tumblr_nk3g0t6LJM1szaospo6_r2_1280.jpg) which I’ve said before [is probably projection](http://des-zimbits.tumblr.com/post/144413562966/tdkeh-tango-b-mine-i-have-the-greatest); outing is a threat the cuts both ways with them)  Heck, he’s even a lot of things Jack isn’t and never was: sociable, affable, the kind of person who effortlessly reads and navigates peoples’ social perceptions of him.

Waaaay back in [The Hockey Prince](http://omgcheckplease.tumblr.com/post/57707902966) it’s stated: “But the prince would concoct a plan.  He would venture back to the land of the Queen. There, he would reclaim greatness… And thereby gain entrance to the kingdom. And all was going well. Until, of course–This little shit came along.”

Like, Jack was trying to turn himself into the other side of the Parse coin (Shitty reads him as jealous) **until** Bitty showed up.  And the only way to show just how different he is because of Bitty is to compare him to Parse.

The point of the Parse strips coming along right after Bitty realizes he’s in love with Jack is: Bitty would have had no chance with the Jack he met at the beginning of the comic.  The Jack who only later realized [he focused too much on himself as a player](http://67.media.tumblr.com/cb240b8fcae497eae0ee2c385df6fe6a/tumblr_nbciii7kSw1szaospo3_r1_1280.jpg).

[Kent offers him a spot on an NHL team](http://66.media.tumblr.com/98e39513d17b98bb4c5128ca1b990d80/tumblr_nk3g0t6LJM1szaospo3_r1_1280.jpg) where he would probably be wildly successful and says, “You can be done with this shitty team [Samwell],” and **Jack tells him to get out and leave his team alone.**

Jack has friends, has interests outside of hockey, has learned to [count the cost of winning](http://66.media.tumblr.com/4023b79787ea57dfa5998d592ec8ca31/tumblr_n9nuloHPnl1szaospo1_r1_1280.jpg) and prioritize his team over success.  He’s learned to be vulnerable and [let people in during his darkest moments](http://omgcheckplease.tumblr.com/post/135214989017) instead of responding to rejection or defeat by being venemous to the people around him ([Parse did it](http://66.media.tumblr.com/95bbb3e1dbd7123308dd48e70adae3a5/tumblr_nk3g0t6LJM1szaospo8_r1_1280.jpg), but [Jack did too](http://65.media.tumblr.com/3c9d98f3aacf15cbfe00f97a6d4b06a3/tumblr_my3ssabDOw1szaospo1_1280.jpg)).  Although Jack’s more confident now about exposing himself to mass media (think of the AMA he did on Bitty’s twitter) he comes across as [awkward](http://67.media.tumblr.com/0ce4cde31c1c2511072dca023725ea4d/tumblr_o5sys9d5Go1szaospo4_r1_1280.png) or [goofy](http://67.media.tumblr.com/dfd7b56526d0951eb0761c018545d91f/tumblr_inline_o5vxwqPkHR1qm934q_500.jpg) but always genuine, not [trying to be suave and slick](http://omgcheckplease.tumblr.com/post/110479351702).  He’s changed, a lot.  He’s mastered skills of resilience, authenticity, and intimacy we’ve never seen from Parse.

 **The big question going forward is going to be: Can Jack be not!Kent and still be successful?**  It’s one thing to ~find yourself~ and get some therapy and discover that you’re not actually as in favour of shredding your happiness to achieve your childhood dream as you thought you were and give up on it, but Jack’s still in the NHL.  Jack still wants to win.  So the big question becomes: Can he break all his profession’s unwritten rules (don’t be gay, don’t talk about your feelings, don’t care about anything but hockey, don’t acknowledge your limits) and _still succeed?_   Is it possible that instead of a “career setback”, Samwell was a step to becoming the best athlete he could be?

The comic seems to be heading down to a big Jack-Parse showdown (I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Las Vegas and Providence are on different sides of the continent, so if they met during Playoffs it would be at the Stanley Cup final) because Parse epitomizes the old boys’ ethos of hockey, and Jack epitomizes a challenge to it.

I mean, if I had money to bet I would put it all on Jack winning.  Even if Jack doesn’t win in hockey, he will still be going back to a loving relationship and a circle of true friends and an intrinsic sense of self-worth, none of which Kent seems likely to have.  On a cosmic scale, Jack wins and Kent loses, because Kent’s worldview is flawed.

And I think I’m actually a Kent Parson fan _because_  I love Jack Zimmermann so much, because I love the new thing he represents so much.  Because the old worldview that he’s breaking away from says: to lose is a _crushing defeat,_  it leaves you broken and inadequate, it’s shameful and means you should be isolated and reviled.  If this were a 1980 sports movie, Jack would leave the arena with his arm around a beautiful blond’s shoulder and Kent would be left in his sad, awful, lonely life, and text on the screen before the end credits would probably tell us he died alone as a washed up alcoholic has-been by the age of 40.

 _Check Please,_  meanwhile, is about how Jack’s major setback wasn’t actually a crushing defeat or even a blotch on his career; the ashes of his smooth ascent to hockey glory were fertile ground for new growth and greater development as a person and a player.  So my hope is that Kent’s defeat is _likewise_  a new opportunity for him.  That maybe Jack’s liberation from the old rules can turn around and liberate Kent also.


End file.
